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Remembering sight words is a big part of your child learning to read. The words “was” and “you” are examples of sight words. Sight words appear frequently when reading and often times do not follow phonetic rules – your child will not be able to sound them out. Memorization is the best approach to mastering sight word reading and spelling.

Your child can memorize sight words with a personalized word book. My students make their own sight word books. Their books contain only the words that they need to master.

Use a sight word checklist to decide which words to include in your child’s word book. The checklist contains the most often used sight words. Have your child quickly go through the list. Check the words that she can read quickly on sight. Add the words that she cannot read into her sight word book.

The sight word book is a blank book with pages big enough for your child to write an individual word at the top and then below to write a sentence and/or draw a picture to help explain the word’s meaning. For example if the word is “where”, your child could write a short sentence under the word like, “Where is my bike?” She could draw a picture of her bike with a question mark as a cue to help her remember that “where” is a “question” word.

Start with 25 words in your child’s sight word book. Add 25 more words after she masters these. This activity is effective because your child creates her own individualized meaning cues for the word through her sentence and picture. By creating the sentence and picture herself, she will remember better the word when she reads and spells it. This is particularly helpful when your child is working to remember homophones – words that sound the same but have different meaning, like “by” and “buy”. The picture and sentence trigger visual memory clues that your child can use later.

My students really enjoy creating and using their own books of sight words and sentences and pictures. What are ways you help your child remember sight words?

Finally, I have found a great use for my daughter’s old toddler-size Legos – a game that helps your child recognize words that are part of the same word family, like lap, cap and map. On each Lego block is a word. Your child “wins” by putting together the Lego blocks with words in the same family.

To make the game, write examples of each word family on individual blocks using a permanent marker like a Sharpie. I used three blocks and words per family. Bad, dad, and had are examples of the ad word family. Write one word per a block on both its front and back. I made blocks of word families to practice the short sounds of all vowels – a, e, i, o and u. For example, the short a word families includes three word blocks for each of the ad, at, ap and ag word families – a total of twelve words for the short vowel a.

Before starting the game with your child, begin by explaining how to play. Begin with one of the word families, for example at. Have your child break apart the family of three at-word blocks and ask, “What is the same about all of these blocks?” Help your child arrive at the answer, “All of the words have the same at ending.” With that understanding, your child is ready to play.

To start the game, mix the blocks for your child to sort into individual word family groups. To organize this, break apart all of your blocks. Keep out one base block for each word family word: ap, at, ad and ag. Put the remaining blocks in a bag for your child to pick one word block at a time. Have your child read and then match the block to the base, word-family block.

The game is a great way to find out if your child really understands word families. It helps them read the base word and then connect what they read to the next word – recognizing that the next word is like the last with a different first letter and sound. “Oh! If I change the first letter in cat to the letter h, the word says hat.”

My children love building and sorting word blocks. My younger kiddos start with one group of three short vowel word blocks. My older, more independent readers use a mix of short vowel groupings – for example short o and short e words. Regardless of skill level, both start with a base word block for each word family and put the remaining separated blocks in a bag or bin to pick, read, match and build.

Your child will love this game while learning to recognize word patterns that strengthen reading and spelling skills. Hope you enjoy!

What are ways you have used building materials like blocks to reinforce spelling or reading games?

Here are some excellent book choices for your child to read to herself or for you and your child to read aloud together.

Reading aloud together is a great approach to use with your emergent reader. She might not be able to read independently, but will be encouraged to do so through your example. Reading aloud is an excellent option to help your child build comprehension by asking, “Who, what, when, where, and why?” throughout the story.

These are my top five favorites that my nine-year-old daughter has tested recently:

1. Hugo – This beautifully illustrated story will spark your child’s imagination to the creativity in life’s experiences.

2. Nancy Drew series – My daughter’s great aunt sent us her old copy of this series. Forgot how good it is. Bella loves the action and adventure in these books.

3. The Wings of Fire series – Bella’s favorite books right now play on her love of dragons.

4. The Doll People series – Dolls come alive and have many interesting human-like interactions with each other.

5. The Warriors series – These will appeal to your cat lover, or in our case, our girl who loves both cats and dog!

Additionally, the following article by Carrie Goldman provides a more comprehensive list of great chapter books:

Often times my parents will tell me that their children are having a hard time focusing when reading – especially the parents of kids just beginning to read independently. Here are a few techniques to try with your child to help increase their reading focus, fluency and comprehension.

First, when your child is reading aloud, track each word for her with your finger as she reads. If she misreads a word or makes a mistake, keep your finger on that word so she is aware of her mistake until you teach her the correct word or help her focus on the skipped words.

Another way to increase focus while your child is reading aloud is to ask questions periodically about the context of the text or story to insure she understands what she is reading. Help bring her focus to the main idea and specific details about the story.

Finally, bring your child’s attention to words that she misreads aloud. As you track the words while she reads, highlight words that she misreads. So you can review these words with her, copy a chapter at a time as she progresses in the book or text. Then after each chapter, review missed words with your child. This technique also teaches your child to be aware of how many words she skips, since skipping too many words might affect her comprehension of what she reads.

By practicing these three techniques, you are teaching your child how to have greater focus as she begins to read independently.

Want a fast, fun way to expand your preschooler’s vocabulary and understanding? I found one while working with a student who is an English Language Learner. English Language Learners often have limited exposure to English vocabulary at home. Vocabulary is important to building reading skills and listening comprehension as well as increasing conversational speech.

My new student and I started playing what I call “prop” stories. Prop stories start with small three-dimensional toy figures, or pictures on felt or magnets, that depict animals, people or other realistic or fanciful objects. A blank background can work or you can use a specific background like a zoo theme for example. The key is to focus on your child’s specific interests.

To introduce these prop stories, I model the story first using specific sentences, which I ask my student to repeat. For example in my zoo prop story I might say, “A mother takes her son to the zoo. They see the penguins swimming in the water. They see the elephants swinging their trunks.”

As your child gets more comfortable with vocabulary and sentence structuring, he can begin to create his own stories without your prompting and labeling of words.

Prop stories are great for children as young as 18 months – 2 years and for older children too. You can find materials for your child’s prop story around your home or can purchase magnetic and felt story sets at teacher school supply stores.

Prop stories are fun. Your child will see them as play and will be motivated by the imaginative interactions with you. As your child plays with you, she expands her vocabulary and language skills as you label the words and create a better grasp on sentence structuring. Your child’s creativity grows too as your child creates and tells stories.

Your child will benefit from tutoring whether she needs some enrichment in reading or is struggling. Regardless of the reason to start with a tutor, remember: “It’s never too late!”

Some of my parents who call me about tutoring feel guilty for either not catching the learning challenge or waiting too long to begin tutoring. I tell them not to feel guilty. Until your child is in school and her teacher lets you know, your child’s underlying academic difficulties may be hard to see. Knowing when your child might benefit from tutoring is even less evident. Sometimes as a parent, you might not know until your child’s teacher recommends tutoring.

Your enthusiasm is critical when your child needs tutoring. Focus on your child’s strengths and challenges, both in a positive way. Remember that overcoming challenges and learning new strategies takes time. Continue to have high expectations, but give your child time to learn new skills. Your child’s tutor can give you a gauge of your child’s pace after a few sessions and suggest strategies that you can use to encourage your child.

For example, I often tell my parents to track words for their child as she reads aloud to help with missed words and help increase fluency. Additionally, I find that some of my students who have dyslexia and struggle with reading will also have very strong listening comprehension skills. Therefore, I often suggest to my parents that they balance challenging their child to read books with playing to their child’s strength by providing audio books.

If your child is dyslexic, make your focus her strengths, not her label. I see this happen with parents sometimes – forgetting that their child is so much more than the label would suggest. In many ways, parents are better off just eliminating the label when they talk to their child about having dyslexia. Otherwise, their child may start to think, “I’m the child with dyslexia. That’s why I can’t spell.” Instead, focus on strategies that help your child be successful.

For example, your child’s tutor might find that she is having difficulties with her reading comprehension in her science text. A tutor might recommend that you help in between sessions by using the strategy of reading the questions at the end of your child’s science chapters before she starts reading the text for specific information. This allows your child to think about the information that she should look for as she reads.

We all learn in different ways and that’s the key message to tell your child. I often tell my daughter that although I’m a great speller, I have to work harder on math. This makes her realize that we all have skills to improve upon. As a tutor, I often say this to my students, “We all have strengths and weaknesses.”

So remember, be positive and embrace your child’s learning challenges just as you do her strengths. Tutoring is a great way to help your child feel more confident and catch up on her skills. Remind yourself that you are an amazing parent because you are helping your child tackle challenges and build on strengths. As a parent of an incredible 8-year-old daughter, I remind myself of this each day.

Like this:

Touch each word as you read to your child to emphasize that each is separate and unique. Emphasize that you are reading from left to right to teach directionality.

Put objects that all begin with the same letter sound in a bag or box. Have your child pull them out. Say each object’s name emphasizing its beginning sound. For example, cat begins with the |c| sound just like cow. Then let them pull out more objects that make the same sound.

Frequent the library. Help your child pick out books that they are interested in and age appropriate. This shows them how much you value reading. Let them see you reading your favorite books too.

Play rhyming games. This can be great fun on road trips or walking outings together. For example, you might say, “I saw a cat on a mat with a _____. ” Let them fill in the blank. There are no wrong answers in this game, except the sillier the better including nonsense words!

When you teach letter names, use letters that are lowercase because this is what they will see in books. Save capital letters until after they’ve mastered the lowercase. You can find a set of lowercase letters at a teacher’s supply store.

Use these 5 ideas to start having fun cultivating an early reader!

What are some ideas you’ve used with your child to promote early reading?

My daughter was sick for the past two days. As we were snuggled in bed, my eight-year old who has been reading independently since age two, asked, “Will you read to me, Mommy?”

Her request immediately brought back memories of her younger days sitting on my lap as I read favorite stories to her. In part through those experiences, we developed a close bond as I helped cultivate my early reader.

Here are a couple favorites that your infant, toddler or preschooler might enjoy hearing you read as you snuggle:

For your infant up to age 6 months. As an infant, my daughter loved to have me read and act out Peek-a Book by Janet Ahlberg. This story takes your infant from breakfast to bedtime with opportunities to play peek-a-boo in each of the book’s scenes. Another great book for this age is Black on White by Tana Hoban. Using this book, you can share familiar shapes with your baby, talk about each picture to expand vocabulary and have fun together.

For your infant at age 6 to 12 months.I Can by Helen Oxenbury focuses on body awareness. Have fun with your infant as you explore her world as the baby in the story jumps, stretches and dances throughout this book. Where’s Baby by Tom Paxton is a great book for your little animal lover. In this book, a kitten searches for its friend the baby. The fun rhyming text provides a playful twist on hide-and-seek as you enjoy the book’s beautiful artwork together.

For your toddler to age two. Ingrained in my memory is Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon. My husband and I must have read this all time favorite a 1000 times at our daughter’s request for a bedtime story. In this classic, mother bunny takes baby bunny through all the rituals of getting ready for bed. This incredible book will help encourage your child’s bedtime rituals. Next, The Itsy Bitsy spider by Lorianne Siomades beautifully illustrates this classic rhyme in a way that your active toddler can act out. Your child will practice motor control with her fingers as she follows the rhyme with you and sings the lyrics.

For your preschooler.The Story of Babar by Jean de Brunhoff is a favorite from my childhood, and for my preschool students. In this classic story, a brave little elephant, Babar, escapes the capture of hunters who kill his mother. Alone, Babar heads to the city where a kind old lady educates him. Wiser, Babar returns to the great forest where he is crowned king of the elephants. Another favorite is The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Paul Galdone, Caldecott-honored artist. Paul Goldone’s illustrations make this book amazing. When I read this aloud, my preschoolers love this story because it invites the reader to use dramatic expression and tone-of-voice. My preschoolers beg me to read the story again and again.

In this busy world, you and your children may have less time to read just for pleasure. Kids today have 8 hours less free time than they did 20 years ago. So I have a proposal to rediscover those 8 hours of lost unstructured fun time – time that inevitably leads to more happy and content children.

Here are a few great ways to find this free reading time:

Schedule time in the day when you and your family read for pleasure. It might be after dinner or before bedtime during the school week or first thing in the morning on the weekends. During this time, make sure all family members participate.

Have reading material on hand that is truly pleasurable for all members of your family. This means reading material that is fun and exciting for your child. It could be comics, books, magazines, newspapers or free e-books available from most public libraries.

Read together with your child on the couch or in bed to make this bonding time, too. Talk to your child about what they are reading and share information about books that you are reading.

Quality time spent together with you – their parent – will make your children content and secure with their life. Reading together is the greatest gift you can offer your children – the gift of your time.

Like this:

Your home is your child’s learning environment. So what might the environment of your early reader look like?

Books will become a huge part of your child’s learning environment. As your child becomes an early reader, she will delight in a bedroom that holds many books in shelves, and a comfortable bed, table and chair for reading. A reading light over your child’s bed that is dim enough to sooth, but not too bright, will help support their likely wish to read before nodding off. As your child becomes a more proficient reader, she will likely to return to favorite books. She may be almost 8 years old and still look back at board books in between venturing into Harry Potter or an encyclopedia of North American frogs. Books become friends to your early reader who may want to keep many of her books – so consider more bookshelves. Of course, toys and clothing are in your early reader’s room too but hidden in bins to free her of distracting clutter.

Distractions can influence your child becoming an early reader who is motivated to learn as much as possible. Screen time can become a major distraction. If you have TV, consider keeping it behind cabinet doors and on only in the evening after bedtime. Consider limiting your child’s time on the iPad, too. Interestingly enough, you may find your child will want to craft or pursue other creative outlets instead of iPad time. The key point is that your early reader’s environment is set up so that reading is what he wants to do, because other distractions like TV and the computer are a controlled privilege.

Clutter can be another distraction. Consider keeping your child’s toys in her room in containers. Fewer toys can foster creativity. Contrary to what some might think, more “stuff” does not necessarily lead to a happier, smarter child. Instead, more seems to lead to a child who is only satisfied with the latest toy.

Cultivating imagination and creativity can help cultivate your child’s interest in early reading. Creative play that encourages imagination can help motivate him to become an early reader. To foster your child’s imagination and creativity, focus on providing materials and places inside your home dedicated to your child learning. Elsewhere in your home where you and your child frequent, consider providing an easel and stocking a craft cabinet. Supply obvious things like glue, crayons, and paper to the less obvious like recycled clothes, tape, cardboard tubes and boxes. You will find your child may choose to create if they are not far from the action in your home with less screen time and clutter. Once your early reader is comfortable in their learning environment that you create, and wants to learn to do something, like sewing or building a model rocket, he will read about it first and then give it a go. Free of screen time distractions and clutter, he will find entertainment in what is available in the current environment rather than wanting new toys or more time on the computer.

If possible, a backyard or other outdoor space can benefit your early reader. It doesn’t have to be big – but it should be secure and private. Ideally, it is fenced in and private enough your child can easily explore and play without your constant attention. A sandbox is a favorite area where your imaginative one can make cakes for backyard fairies or pursue a career as a famous scientist. A garden is another favorite for learning the names of various herbs and plants, which become material for creations or samples for the microscope. A birdfeeder too is an endless source of inspiration for research, drawing and storytelling. Again, only a few toys hidden in containers – mostly tools for creating, exploring and moving the body.

Regardless of where you live, your early reader is most likely to thrive in an uncluttered environment where easily accessible books are the main entertainment and screen time is limited and tied to privilege – where toys fulfill needs rather than to satisfy wants and are a special treat.

What is your early reader’s home environment? How do you cultivate early reading?